Writing Poetic Parodies: The Art of Imitation
Comedians like Tina Fey and Frank Caliendo entertain audiences by imitating and poking
fun of well-known people; they do impressions, we say. The best impressionists recreate so
accurately the speech patterns, body language, and general demeanor of the celebrities they
imitate that we have to remind ourselves the actual person is not standing there. Some Elvis
imitators have made a career of this art form. Writers do impressions too. When a writer imitates
another writer, the result is called parody. Usually, a parody is done for satirical purposes; but if
Charles Colton's claim that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery is true, but then most
parodists also admire the writers they satirize.
A good parody requires the writer to study carefully the style in which his model author
writes. The parodist must learn and be able to reproduce the sentence structure, word choice, and
tone in which the imitated source normally writes, no small task. Like an impressionist preparing
a new routine, the parodist must study his subject carefully in order to accurately imitate the
nuances of the original. For example, notice how the following parody of Edgar Allen Poe's "The
Raven" recreates the rhythm and rhyme patterns of the famous poem:
Once upon a weekend dreary, while I squandered time and energy,
Over a dull and spurious research paper on gun control,
While I prodded, nearly slapping, my ancient typewriter to keep it tapping,
I heard a gentle little rapping at my bedroom door!
"Maybe it's my English teacher," I sputtered, "Coming to my homework prison,
to check my paper for plagiarism!"
So I quickly locked the door. Merely this and nothing more.
The following anonymous parody which appeared in a church bulletin employs the famous
language of the King James Version of the Bible to poke fun not at the Psalmist but at church
members who are less than faithful during the summer months.
Psalm of Summer
Now it came to pass that spring turned to summer again. God's people raised their voices
and said, "Recreation is my shepherd, I shall not stay home; He maketh me to lie down in a
sleeping bag; He leadeth me down the interstate each weekend. He restoreth my suntan; He
leadeth me to state parks for comfort's sake. Even though I stray on the Lord's day, I will
fear no reprimand for Thou art with me. My rod and reel they comfort me; I anointest my
skin with oil; my gas tank runneth dry. Surely my trailer shall follow me all the weekends
this summer, and I shall return to the House of the Lord this fall.
To write your own poetic parody, choose a famous author whose writing is distinctive, and
study that person's style until you become very familiar with the way he or she uses words and
puts them together into sentences or verse. Now, choose a specific poem or passage associated
with this author, choose your own subject, and go to work. Writing a good parody is often a
matter of trial and error, experimenting until you discover what works.